Ahura Mazda and Varuna:
Varuna (“Oath”) is frequently juxtaposed with another more familiar deity, Mitra (“Covenant, Agreement”) in a collective role as upholders of order. Mazda is similarly juxtaposed with Mithra in some Avestan material.
Varuna, or Varuna-Mitra, it can be argued, must have been the supreme deity of pre-Zoroastrian religion (this is the “Zoroaster wasn’t all that innovative” school of reasoning).
Epithets and descriptors etymologically related to, but non-identical with, “Mazda” (Medhira) are occasionally applied to Varuna.
It’d be weird of Varuna was nowhere to be found in the Avesta.
To adress point one and four, this is based on various prayers where we see invocations of “Ahura-Mithra”, which is taken to be a juxtaposition of the gods. However, in the Gathas, there is an occurring construction “Mazda and the other Ahuras”. There are in fact two beings apart from Mazda addressed as Ahura in extant (younger) Avesta material, Mithra and Apam Napat (Son of the Waters). The latter is in fact an epithet of Varuna in the Rgveda. It is difficult to know, but it is possible that Zoroaster conceived of a trinity of Ahura the creator, and the lesser Ahuras Mithra and Apam Napat. However, neither Mithra nor Apam Napat are ever referred to in the Gathas, Zoroaster’s great hymns. But the Gathas are very different in style and language from the younger Avestan material – far less concerned with e.g. the elements and more with questions of life, so it’s hard to know what we should expect as well. I tend to agree with Boyce that Zoroastrian tradition, like the Creed, suggests that there were wider and more encompassing teachings that Zoroaster transmitted, although not in easily memorable hymn form – thus they are found in later verse or even Middle Persian prose. Of course, it is difficult to impossible to really figure out what goes all the way back to Zoroaster, and what doesn’t.
Point two can neither really be proven or disproven, but I consider it rather fanciful – Varuna was consideredsurely a king of the gods at some point, but there is little to suggest the kind of “absolute” exaltation Ahura Mazda has. Point three has a pretty simple refutation: Mazda literally means Wisdom. Indo-Iranian religion has the distinct feature that divinities and abstract or concrete concepts are generally interchangeable, so Mazda is the personification or hypostasis of Wisdom, as well as the abstract quality of wisdom. Medhira, however, is an adjective meaning “wise”, one among several synonyms applied to Varuna. The noun form of wisdom, medha, is never invoked as a divinity in extant Vedic material (Addendum 21/5 2019: This point is in dispute on linguistic grounds, as the name Mazda appears to be distinct from the noun Mazda “Wisdom” in terms of syllabilic value, i.e. vowel length, in Gathic material; the difference between constructs like “thinker” vs “thought” in early Indo-European languages tend to be very subtle). Mazda may well have been a minor divinity prior to Zoroaster, but there really is nothing suggesting he’s just using an alternate name for Varuna.
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Conclusion
The dichotomy that exists between Iranian and Indo-Aryan conceptions, then, should probably be attributed in part to social circumstances, and in part to simple differences in theology. I think the desire to unite Varuna and Ahura Mazda dates back in part to the 19th century quests of finding common denominators to all languages and beliefs – and who can blame them, with the astounding similarities that exist? It is at least satisfying that, while much of the tradition of the Rgveda and younger Avestan material is concerned with arcane ritual and require conceptions of the world that we can today only begin to grasp at, the Gathas, the great hymns of Zoroaster, have a strikingly timeless quality to them:
Tell me, for thou art he that knows, O Ahura: – shall the Righteous smite the Deceiver before the retributions come which thou hast conceived? That would be indeed a message to bless the world.
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When shall I witness thy power, O Mazda and Right, over everyone whose destructiveness is a menace to me? Let the revelation of Good Thought be confirmed unto me; the future deliverer should know how his own destiny shall be.
When, O Mazda, will the nobles understand the message? When will thou smite the filthiness of this intoxicant, through which the Karapans evilly deceive, and the wicked lords of the lands with purpose fell?
Textual critics like to argue that the Gathas are hyper-formulaic compositions that tell us absolutely nothing about the experiences of Zoroaster and the world he lived in.
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